Sri Lanka crush India 49-7 but lose to Hong Kong 7-31 [October 04 2008]

Sri Lanka making a desperate bid to qualify for the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens from the Asian region crushed India by 49 points to 7 before losing 7-31 to host nation Hong Kong in their two games down for decision, at the on-going RWC Asian Qualifiers here at Hong Kong Football Stadium today.

The winners collected their points from three converted tries and two tries, while the islanders could only reply with a converted try of their own.

The solitary try for Sri Lanka was grabbed by Isipathana MV schoolboy prodigy Sajith Saranga in the third minute of the second half after his skipper Pradeep Liyanage had made a fine break in mid-field before releasing the former, for his maiden international try for his country.

At the interval, Hong Kong led by 24 points to nil. At the start of the game, heavy rains greeted both teams but clearly Sri Lanka failed to put in their first-time tackled in the first half. However, the tourists recovered well in the second-half to give the home side a semblance of a fight, before the latter sped away to post a facile win in the end.

The match against India was quite in contrast to what was witnessed in the game against Hong Kong, as Sri Lanka whipped the wooden-spoonists (49-7). But, the day?s biggest upset was created, when Chinese Taipei ranked 7 in the IRB International Sevens pecking order, dumped the much fancied Korean team (21-7).